Mass Market Designer Collaborations 2009-12-02 16:30:22

Are Mass-Market Designer Collaborations Passé?

By now, every fashion fan has dipped her wallet into at least one high/low designer collaboration. Take your pick — Target Go International, H&M, Urban Outfitters, Mango, and so on. The latest one, between Liberty of London and Target, will produce a limited-edition collection of fashion and home goods for March 2010. With the amount of high and low partnerships out there, it begs the question: Is the market saturated? Are you over it? On one hand, it's great that the budget conscious can afford designer, but adversely, it's hard to keep up! What do you think?

I think that it's a great idea, but often poorly executed. I'd love to see more of them. Having relatively high-fashion goods available at prices that are fairly accessible is HUGE. But it's important for these stores to price the items comparably to their quality.

I used to be excited, but now I'm just overwhelmed. The quality of some has been abysmal — the Loeffler Randall for Target line was really overpriced for the plasticky sheen of those bags and shoes. Some collabs have been good, though... I still have a Luella for Target dress and a Viktor & Rolf for H&M shirt that have held up beautifully over the years.
So while I'm not OVER the collaborations per se, they don't feel as special, and some of the quality has been horrendous. Which all adds up to me not rushing to check things out anymore.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks it's a silly idea. I won't pay for a name unless it comes with better quality, fit, and style than I would get otherwise. I think the low end designer lines are just the same cheap things I can get from a non-designer line.

You have to be careful about which things you buy because it's true that a lot of them are pretty poor quality. It may seem like the collaborations have been overdone, but I would much rather have too many than none!!

In theory it sounds good but I have to agree, most of the collaboration things I've seen you might as well pick up somewhere else for a cheaper price. I know the idea is to make it more affordable so obviously the collaborations can't be of the same calibre as the original, high-ends, but I dunno it's just annoying when they stamp the name on the label but it's not reeally the same. Like watered down orange juice? :P I don't know. Maybe I'm just bitter 'cause even the collabs are still a bit steep for me haha :D

Thought provoking collection of comments. Thanks members. My addition, is: "more good design in the world please" and "Just having clothes on my back I am richer than 2/3 of the worlds population already, perhaps luxury is an outdated concept that doesn't serve humanity very well" Had some other thoughts about quality = efficiency and how wasteful it is to produce shoddy goods in the first place and how shopping is not just a shallow selfish distraction but can be part of a real solution too. Other times, I think is is just distraction . . .Feeling alone tonight and quite small in a world so needing of growth/change.

but i believe for some design houses having the diffusion brand helps bring in more money to the house, so that they can continue to afford to do the high-end designs it may also introduce them to the mass consumer who may not necessarily keep up with fashion.

5 years

Yep, I've been against it from the start. Not only has it been overdone, but the fundamental idea is a complete contradiction of what the luxury of designer clothes stands for. The intrigue of true designer pieces is in the quality, originality, and rarity... these diffusions bring down the quality and exclusivity of the garments, and a designer tends to go more mainstream with the designs anyways, so they may as well be just another piece from a cheaper chain.